Accommodates both everyday and special event dessert needs

Looking for a tasty, yet good-looking dessert to serve at your next event or just to satisfy your sweet tooth? Then you may want to check out Murphy’s Specialized Pastry in the Limestone Commons Plaza in Manlius.

Seventh grade students at ESM Pine Grove East middle school took a “reverse field trip” last week during which they had only to walk outside their school to learn a lesson about owning a mobile restaurant business from The Bacon Bandits — and the kids also got to shock their taste buds with a taste of the bandits’ famous bacon jam.

The Manlius village board last week unanimously approved a local law to grant a special use permit to local entrepreneurs who intend to open a brew pub in the village of Manlius. The brew pub, which would be located at 315 E. Seneca St., would be one piece of a larger business plan to include two farms to grow hops and barley in the town of Manlius, create a brewery at one of the farms and open the brew pub.

Whether it was through their words or actions — like tossing the majority of the food on their lunch trays into the garbage — Fayetteville-Manlius High School students made it known that they were unhappy with the changes that have taken place in their school cafeteria since the federal government implemented the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010. They have been heard, and by mid-September will see big changes in the foods offered in their school.

When Side Hill first opened its doors in the plaza behind Sno Top last July, there were three employees and a lot of meat — and that was about it. But over the last year, it has expanded to include almost a dozen employees and numerous varieties of meats, vegetables and prepared foods. And now, thanks to a nearly $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the co-op can expand even more.

More sponsors, increased participants scheduled for this year’s annual event

The gourmand, the oenophile, the epicurean, the zymurgist — whatever the label for people who love good food and drink, they all will be happy on Sept. 9, when the annual Taste of Cazenovia event returns. This year, for the first time ever, the event will be held at the Willow Bank Yacht Club.

Larger retail location opens with more local products and interactive space

The 2014 culinary forecast is in: according to more than 1,000 chefs surveyed by the National Restaurant Association, locally sourced meats are the most sought-after food item in the country. The farm-to-table movement has energized chefs and consumers alike to demand more local, quality foods. Indeed, the most recent census shows farms selling directly to consumers increased sales by more than 300 percent since 1992, and are growing twice as fast as the country’s total agricultural sales.